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Version 6.30
Version 6.30
  • Welcome
  • Nexthink V6
  • Overview
    • Software components
    • Collector
    • Finder
    • Engine
    • Portal
    • Nexthink Library
    • Digital Experience Score
  • Installation and configuration
    • Planning your installation
      • Overview of the installation process
      • Hardware requirements
      • Connectivity requirements
      • Software requirements
      • Reference architectures
    • Installing Portal and Engine Appliances
      • Installing the Appliance
      • Installing the Appliance on Azure
      • Installing the Appliance on AWS
      • Installing the Appliance on OTC
      • Managing Appliance accounts
      • Setting the names of the Portal
      • Setting the names of the Engines
      • Specifying your internal networks and domains
      • Federating your Appliances
      • STIG compliance in Web Console
      • Connecting the Portal to the Engines
      • Configuring session performance storage
      • Configuring device performance storage
      • Setting up a software license
      • Sending email notifications from the Appliance
      • Allocating resources for the Portal
    • Installing the Collector
      • Installing the Collector on Windows
      • Installing the Collector on macOS
      • Installing the Collector for a Proof of Value
      • Assigning Collectors to Engines
      • Assignment of roaming Collectors
      • Collector MSI parameters reference table
      • Nxtcfg - Collector configuration tool
      • Inspecting the connection status of the Collector
      • Querying the status of the TCP connection of the Collector
      • Reporting the URL of HTTP web requests
      • Auditing logon events
      • Viewing user interactions in virtualized and embedded environments
      • Engage notifications on macOS
      • Configuring Collector level anonymization
    • Collector remote connectivity
      • Redirecting and anonymizing Collector traffic
      • Redirecting the Collector TCP channel
      • Support for DirectAccess
      • Windows Collector proxy support
      • Mac Collector proxy support
    • Installing the Event Connector
      • Installing the Event Connector on Linux
    • Installing the Finder
      • Installing the Finder on Windows
      • Enabling Cross-Engine Finder features
      • Expanding the time frame of investigations in the Finder
      • Enabling Finder access to the Library
      • Finder proxy support
    • Updating from V6.x
      • Updating the Appliance
      • Content centralization when updating the Appliance
      • Updating the Collector
      • Viewing Collector deprecated fields
      • Updating the Finder
    • Security and user account management
      • Importing and replacing certificates
      • Hierarchizing your infrastructure
      • Adding users
      • Enabling SAML authentication of users
      • Just-In-Time provisioning of user accounts
      • Enabling Windows authentication of users
      • Multi-factor authentication for local accounts overview
      • Provisioning user accounts from Active Directory
      • Establishing a privacy policy
      • Disabling local accounts for interactive users
      • Setting the complexity and minimum length of passwords for local accounts
      • Protecting local accounts against brute force attacks
      • Preventing password saving in the Finder
      • Controlling session timeouts in the Portal
      • Security settings in the Appliance
      • Setting the Do Not Disturb periods between campaigns
    • Data retrieval and storage
      • Data retention
      • Increasing the maximum number of metrics
      • Establishing a data retention policy in the Engine
      • Storing Engine data in a secondary disk drive
      • Importing data from Microsoft Active Directory
      • Setting the locale in the Portal
      • Changing the Time Zone of the Portal
      • Time Zones and data collection
      • Changing the data collection time of the Portal
      • Nightly task schedules timetable
      • Changing the thresholds of High CPU warnings
      • Automatic restart of unresponsive Engine
    • Maintenance operations
      • Logging in to the CLI
      • Special operation modes for the Engine and the Portal
      • Changing the default ports in the Appliance
      • Centralized Management of Appliances and Engines
      • Monitoring the performance of the Appliance
      • Resizing partitions in Appliance
      • Configuring the system log
      • Examining the logs in the Portal
      • GDPR - Retrieving or anonymizing personal data
      • Finding out unlicensed devices
      • Removing devices
      • Installing third-party software in the Appliance
      • Installing VMware Tools in the Appliance
      • Operational data sent to Nexthink
      • Sending additional data to Support
    • Disaster recovery
      • Planning for disaster recovery
      • Web Console backup and restore
      • Engine backup and restore
      • Portal backup and restore
      • Rule-based assignment backup and restore
      • License backup and restore
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    • Branding
      • Branding the Portal
      • Branding of campaigns
  • User manual
    • Getting started
      • Logging in to the Finder
      • Logging in to the Portal
      • Enabling STIG in Webconsole
    • Querying the system
      • Searching the subject of interest
      • Executing an investigation
      • Creating an investigation
      • Editing the options of an investigation
      • Combining logical conditions in investigations
      • Navigating through the results of an investigation
      • Properties of users and devices
    • Visualizing system activity in the Finder
      • Getting a quick overview
      • Graphically observing the activity of users and devices
      • Observing service performance
      • Viewing network connections
      • Viewing web requests
      • Viewing executions
    • Monitoring IT custom metrics
      • Creating a metric
      • Examples of metrics
      • Session performance
      • Device performance
      • Following the evolution of a metric
      • Finding the visuals of a metric
    • Monitoring IT services
      • Analyzing service quality
      • Creating a service
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      • Specifying URL paths of web-based services
    • Engaging with the end user
      • Getting feedback from the end users
      • Types of campaigns
      • Creating a campaign
      • Editing a campaign
      • Types of questions
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      • Translating a campaign
      • Triggering a campaign manually
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    • Rating devices and users with scores
      • Computing scores
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      • Score XML Reference
      • Documenting scores
    • Remotely acting on devices
      • Scenarios for remote actions
      • Creating a remote action
      • Executing remote actions
      • Triggering a remote action manually
      • Writing scripts for remote actions on Windows
      • Writing scripts for remote actions on Mac
      • Example of self-healing scenario
      • Example of self-help scenario
      • Application control and remote actions
    • Organizing objects with categories
      • Classifying objects of the same type
      • Creating categories and keywords
      • Tagging objects manually
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      • Importing tags from text files
    • Getting notified by the system
      • Receiving Engage campaigns
      • Receiving email digests
      • Receiving alerts
      • Creating a service-based alert
      • Creating an investigation-based alert
    • Building web-based dashboards
      • Introducing dashboards in the Portal
      • Creating a dashboard
      • Examining metrics in depth
      • Documenting dashboards
      • Assessing license use
      • Computing dashboard data
      • Reusing dashboard content
    • Importing and exporting authored content
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  • Library packs
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      • Device Compliance
    • Configuration Manuals
      • Overview (Configuration Manuals)
      • Installing A New Version Of A Library Pack
    • Digital Employee Score (DEX score)
      • DEX Score Installation And Configuration
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    • Device management
      • Reduce logon duration
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    • Remote Employee Experience
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    • Persona Insight
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      • Persona Insight - Getting Started and Upgrade Procedure
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      • Persona Insight - Reference Guide
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        • Persona Insight - Device Sizing Overview
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        • Persona Insight - Application Sizing Overview
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      • Legacy Persona documentation
        • Persona Insight - Library Pack (V.1.0.0.0)
        • Persona Insight - Base Pack
        • Persona Insight - Base Pack Advanced
        • Persona Insight - Customization Guide (V1.0.0.0)
        • Persona Insight - Configuration Guide (V1.0.0.0)
        • Persona Insight - Reference Guide (V1.0.0.0)
    • GSuite
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        • Virtualization: Troubleshooting: Configuration
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      • Win10: Configuration
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        • MS ConfigMgr - Client Health - Summary
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      • Intune
        • Intune - Health
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  • Integrations
    • Nexthink ServiceNow Service Graph Connector
      • Overview
        • Roles and Permissions
        • Modules
      • Installation and Configuration Guide
        • Pre-requisites
          • Configure Identification Rules
          • Import and setup the CMDB categories in Finder
        • Setup
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      • Data transformation and mapping by default
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      • FAQ
        • Why ServiceNow Service Graph Connector?
        • What about Nexthink CMDB Connector?
        • Why is the name the primary key for the devices?
      • Troubleshooting
        • IRE identification issues
          • [No Choice found in the sys_choice table for the target table](integrations/nexthink-servicenow-service-graph-connector/troubleshooting/ire-identification-issues/ no-choice-found-in-the-sys_choice-table-for-the-target-table.md)
          • Identification rules not created
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        • Timeout Errors
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        • MID server issues
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          • Not trusted certificates in Quebec release
        • Configure credentials issues
          • [Not allowing update of property authentication_choice](integrations/nexthink-servicenow-service-graph-connector/troubleshooting/configure-credentials-issues/ not-allowing-update-of-property-authentication_choice.md)
          • Invalid username/password combo (HTTP 401/403)
        • Configure Engines Issues
          • [The client secret supplied for a confidential client is invalid](integrations/nexthink-servicenow-service-graph-connector/troubleshooting/configure-engines-issues/ the-client-secret-supplied-for-a-confidential-client-is-invalid.md)
        • No Cis imported and no errors found in the log
    • Nexthink ServiceNow Incident Management Connector (IMC)
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        • Upgrading from Splunk Connector to Event Connector
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  • Glossary and references
    • Search and information display
      • Search in Finder
      • Keyboard shortcuts for column display selection
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      • Types of widgets
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      • Errors in the execution of remote actions
      • Top results of Cross-Engine investigations
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      • Maximum supported values
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        • Nexthink and Log4j - Security bulletin
        • CVE-2022-22965 - Security Vulnerability Spring4shell - Spring Framework
        • Version 6.22.2.10: Security Vulnerability Maintenance Release
        • The Collector V6.27.X Release – Security Bulletin
    • References
      • Components of the Collector
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    • Glossary
      • Activity
      • Alert
      • Application
      • Binary
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    • Integrating with Nexthink
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On this page
  • Automatic and manual triggering
  • Delayed first execution of automatically triggered actions
  • Maximum number of simultaneous executions
  • Controlling script execution on the device
  • Executing your own signed scripts
  • Results of remote actions

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  1. User manual
  2. Remotely acting on devices

Executing remote actions

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Automatic and manual triggering

The way of triggering a remote action, whether manually or automatically, usually depends on the particular usage scenario.

is basically used in Assisted service scenarios, where a support team member executes a remote action to help an end-user solve an issue. The rest of the scenarios typically schedule the execution of a remote action either periodically or in response to the detection of a specific issue:

Manual triggering
Automatic triggering
  • Assisted service

  • Self-help

  • Self-healing

  • On-demand data

Delayed first execution of automatically triggered actions

Once an automatically triggered remote action is saved, it is scheduled for execution. To avoid excess network and processing load, the Engine distributes the execution of remote actions so that not all actions run simultaneously on the target devices.

Thus, due to this distributed scheduling, the first execution of an automatically triggered remote action can be delayed up to its triggering period or, if the triggering period is longer than an hour, up to a maximum of one hour after it was created.

Maximum number of simultaneous executions

The Collector can execute two concurrent remote actions, on Windows and macOS. Even though technically possible, Nexthink does not recommend executing two remote actions simultaneously on a system. Executing one at a time makes sure you keep the potential impact of your scripts on the system resources as low as possible.

Controlling script execution on the device

When a remote action is triggered either automatically or manually on a device, the payload of the remote action is executed on the device only if the script execution policy allows it. Define the script execution policy of a device when on that device. Optionally, modify later the script execution policy of a device with the help of .

For security reasons, the script execution policy controls the remote action scripts that are allowed to execute on a particular device.

  • Signed by a trusted publisher or by Nexthink (default): the Collector runs on the device only those remote actions with a PowerShell script that is signed either by Nexthink or by a company whose certificate is listed in the Trusted Publishers certificate store.

  • Signed by a trusted publisher: the Collector runs on the device only those remote actions with a PowerShell script that is signed by a company whose certificate is listed in the Trusted Publishers certificate store.

  • Disabled: the Collector runs no remote action on the device.

  • Unrestricted: the Collector runs any remote action on the device, regardless of the digital signature of its script. Useful for testing purposes, but not recommended in production.

Executing your own signed scripts

The default policy lets official remote actions from the Nexthink Library execute on the device without requiring any additional configuration. If you choose to create and sign your own scripts for remote actions, add the signing certificate to the Trusted Publishers certificate store in Windows.

In addition, if your certificate to sign scripts was generated by a private CA (that is, a CA whose root certificate is not already present in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities certificate store of Windows), add the root certificate of the CA to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities certificate store. Similarly, if you used an intermediate certificate to sign your scripts, include the full chain of intermediate certificates in the Intermediate Certification Authorities certificate store:

  1. Log in to Windows as an administrator.

  2. Press Win+R keys to open the Run dialog:

    1. Type in certlm.msc.

    2. Click OK.

  3. Click Yes to allow the program to make changes to your device.

  4. Right-click the name of the desired certification store (e.g. Trusted Publishers) in the left-hand side list.

    1. Select All-tasks > Import... from the context menu to start the Certificate Import Wizard.

  5. Click Next to start the wizard.

  6. Click Browse and select your certificate file.

  7. Click Next.

  8. In the dialog Place all certificates in the following store, click Next to accept the proposed certificate store.

  9. Verify the certificate to be imported and click Finish.

It is recommended though not to import the certificates individually on every device, but to use a administration tool to deploy the certificates on all devices at the same time. Use Group Policy Objects (GPOs) of Active Directory to this end, for instance.

Results of remote actions

The outputs declared by a remote action are displayed in the Finder. Each output defines a label which is used by the Finder to name the column in the list of results of the remote action.


RELATED TASKS

RELATED REFERENCE

In addition to their defined outputs, remote actions return their status in a supplementary field called Execution status details. If difficulties were found during the execution of the remote action, the status field indicates it with an .

Manual triggering
installing the Collector
Nxtcfg (the Collector configuration tool)
error message
Triggering a remote action manually
Installing the Collector on Windows
Nxtcfg - Collector Configuration Tool
Errors in the execution of remote actions